Friends, fans unveil slain filmmaker’s memorial

Netherlands  He was found dead with a note pinned to his chest with a knife.

Now, three years after Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered by an Islamic extremist, friends and fans of the controversial artist have memorialized him with a sculpture near the spot where he was killed.

Mayor Job Cohen and a Dutch comedian praised Van Gogh and his work as the sculpture by Jeroen Henneman was revealed to hundreds of people gathered at a park in eastern Amsterdam.

Titled "The Scream," the memorial took the form of a series of profiles of Van Gogh in stainless steel-coated ceramics, showing the film maker gradually opening his mouth into a scream.

Mohammed Bouyeri repeatedly shot Van Gogh in 2004 on an Amsterdam street, slit his throat and thrust into his chest a letter threatening the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of radical Islam. The brutal murder sparked a backlash that included the torching of several mosques.